An Augmented Reality nod to the (cinematic) past

A number of cool augmented reality apps have sprouted up recently that infuse the modern day street perspective with winks to the past — for instance, the Museum of London’s StreetMuseum app.

A similar app, Augmented Reality Cinema, pulls on the heartstrings of cinephiles, playing scenes from famous movies at the location where they were filmed in London. It’s such a simple idea, but also such a satisfying example of how the mobile technology we carry around with us everywhere can provide playful new ways to see and appreciate our surroundings.

Via Laughing Squid

Cinema Ad Burns Logo into Viewers’ Vision

BMW created an ad for German cinema where at a certain point the letters BMW are flashed at viewers from behind the screen, leaving a lasting vision when they are instructed to close their eyes.

Pop Secret Movie Night!

Making of Fantastic Mr Fox

Here’s a behind the scenes look into the production behind Wes Andersons ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’.

Big Screen Movies + Public Texting = MuVChat

From the Chicago Tribune via the blog “We Are Organized Chaos”:

There’s a theater in a suburb of Chicago that has started showing second-run movies (Zoolander, Office Space) with audience participation – by mobile text. The technology is called MuVChat.

“The system works this way: Audience members text to a central number, which runs their comments through software. The MuVChat software then displays the texts in a three-line configuration at the bottom of the screen, like a vertical ticker, as the movie plays. Sitting in the projector booth with a standard computer, Heald uses a profanity screening program and can, on the fly, filter comments and ban abusive users.”

The article states that most viewers make about 40 comments per movie and that just as many are interactions with other people in the audience or “Name that tune” for the soundtrack as there are more snarky comments for which movies like “Glitter” might be a hotbed for.

This is a kind of social interactivity technology we haven’t seen much of yet, but sounds very engaging, the sort of thing that certain demographics might seek out.

What other expansions of this technology can you think of?